ST. LOUIS, Mo. — the Board of Elections is apologizing for the inconvenience to voters at 23 voting locations. Authorities were considering whether they could keep polls open beyond the normal closing time 7 p.m. to give people more opportunities to cast their votes after some polling stations ran out of ballots.
Sources say St. Louis County Election Board is appealing Judge Maura McShane decision to close polls at 7 p.m. as scheduled.
@stloday— stevegiegerich (@stevegiegerich) April 5, 2016
Eric Fey, the St. Louis County Director of Elections told FOX 2 News that at polling places with more than one ballot style, the election board flipped the numbers of how many ballots for each style were supposed to go to a particular precinct. That meant some stations had too many of one ballot style and too few of another.
Fey said workers are still trying to track down the exact source of the problem, but it is definitely a database error of some sort.
Voters in both Kansas City and St. Louis are deciding whether to renew the decades-old earnings tax.
The tax requires those who work in Kansas City or St. Louis to pay a 1 percent tax on their pay. Because nonresidents also must pay, thousands of commuters from the neighboring states of Kansas and Illinois are affected.
Voters overwhelmingly embraced renewing the tax five years ago.
Supporters in both cities say losing the revenue would mean cuts in services. Opponents counter that the tax is unfair and drives businesses and workers to the suburbs, and that eliminating it would force the cities to weed out fraud and redundant services.
Voter rejection of the tax would phase it out over a decade by one-tenth of a percent each year.
